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Monday, November 01, 2010

No candy (in review)

For the past two years, Halloween was on nights that I could go out and stay late. To avoid the surge of families coming from other neighborhoods to get a lot of loot down my street, I usually went to the movies and then went to a Halloween party. Knowing Halloween was on a Sunday this year, I knew I couldn't do that kind of thing.

Essentially, my street is barricaded by police from 7:30 until 9:30. That's how big of a bonanza Halloween is on my street. Getting in or out of our driveway is a pain, so I simply braced myself for a few hours of feeling like Robert Neville in the I Am Legend novella (and not the various movie adaptations).

I can't say I enjoyed leaving those candy seekers hanging.

Again, I'd love to pass out candy if I didn't have to shell out an entire week's worth of groceries on candy. If I answered the door once, more people would come and more people would come. Plus, since Diana had to work, Matt was visiting family for the evening, and our upstairs neighbors were occupied with the Rangers' game, I was the only one around who could do the job.

I hoped a suspicion I had would be correct: people would move past our place and go east, to where the big houses were. Not so. Between 6 and 10, I had roughly ten rings of the doorbell or knocks at the front door. There was no way I could open the door long enough to prevent Victory from getting out. And I sure as hell would not stand out there by myself with a couple bags of candy available.

Despite this, I must say there was an added amount of tension to the Walking Dead premiere. The episode was fantastic and a wonderful adaptation from the comic. Not knowing when there was going to be a jump from a door knock, doorbell ring, or zombie appearance made things pretty suspenseful.

But overall, my Halloween weekend was fantastic. I saw the original Psycho screened while the Dallas Symphony played its score. I dressed up as Stephen King for Jason's Fantasy Party. And I successfully carved a Crimson Ghost into a pumpkin on Saturday, while many other friends and co-workers carved pumpkins at our place.

I won't lie though: we might be still eating Halloween candy by New Year's Eve.